History of Friedrich II of Prussia, vol 21 | Page 4

of Anarchies;--abridge
it, spend your heart's-blood upon abridging it, ye Heroic Wise that are
to come! For it is the consummation of All the Anarchies that are and
were; --which I do trust always means the death (temporary death) of
them! Death of the Anarchies: or a world once more built wholly on
Fact better or worse; and the lying jargoning professor of Sham- Fact,
whose name is Legion, who as yet (oftenest little conscious of himself)
goes tumulting and swarming from shore to shore, become a species
extinct, and well known to be gone down to Tophet!--
There were bits of Anarchies before, little and greater: but till that of
France in 1789, there was none long memorable; all were pygmies in
comparison, and not worth mentioning separately. In 1772 the Anarchy
of Poland, which had been a considerable Anarchy for about three
hundred years, got itself extinguished,-- what we may call
extinguished;--decisive surgery being then first exercised upon it: an
Anarchy put in the sure way of extinction. In 1775, again, there began,
over seas, another Anarchy much more considerable,--little dreaming
that IT could be called an Anarchy; on the contrary, calling itself
Liberty, Rights of Man; and singing boundless Io-Paeans to itself, as is

common in such cases; an Anarchy which has been challenging the
Universe to show the like ever since. And which has, at last, flamed up
as an independent Phenomenon, unexampled in the hideously
SUICIDAL way;--and does need much to get burnt out, that matters
may begin anew on truer conditions. But neither the PARTITION OF
POLAND nor the AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE have
much general importance, or, except as precursors of 1789, are worth
dwelling on in History. From us here, so far as Friedrich is concerned
with them, they may deserve some transient mention, more or less: but
World-History, eager to be at the general Funeral-pile and ultimate
Burning-up of Shams in this poor World, will have less and less to say
of small tragedies and premonitory symptoms.
Curious how the busy and continually watchful and speculating
Friedrich, busied about his dangers from Austrian encroachments, from
Russian-Turk Wars, Bavarian Successions, and other troubles and
anarchies close by, saw nothing to dread in France; nothing to remark
there, except carelessly, from time to time, its beggarly decaying
condition, so strangely sunk in arts, in arms, in finance; oftenest an
object of pity to him, for he still has a love for France;--and reads not
the least sign of that immeasurable, all- engulfing FRENCH
REVOLUTION which was in the wind! Neither Voltaire nor he have
the least anticipation of such a thing. Voltaire and he see, to their
contentment, Superstition visibly declining: Friedrich rather
disapproves the heat of Voltaire's procedures on the INFAME. "Why
be in such heat? Other nonsense, quite equal to it, will be almost sure to
follow. Take care of your own skin!" Voltaire and he are deeply alive,
especially Voltaire is, to the horrors and miseries which have issued on
mankind from a Fanatic Popish Superstition, or Creed of
Incredibilities,--which (except from the throat outwards, from the
bewildered tongue outwards) the orthodox themselves cannot believe,
but only pretend and struggle to believe. This Voltaire calls "THE
INFAMOUS;" and this--what name can any of us give it? The man
who believes in falsities is very miserable. The man who cannot believe
them, but only struggles and pretends to believe; and yet, being armed
with the power of the sword, industriously keeps menacing and
slashing all round, to compel every neighbor to do like him: what is to

be done with such a man? Human Nature calls him a Social Nuisance;
needing to be handcuffed, gagged and abated. Human Nature, if it be in
a terrified and imperilled state, with the sword of this fellow swashing
round it, calls him "Infamous," and a Monster of Chaos. He is indeed
the select Monster of that region; the Patriarch of all the Monsters, little
as he dreams of being such. An Angel of Heaven the poor caitiff
dreams himself rather, and in cheery moments is conscious of
being:--Bedlam holds in it no madder article. And I often think he will
again need to be tied up (feeble as he now is in comparison, disinclined
though men are to manacling and tying); so many helpless infirm souls
are wandering about, not knowing their right hand from their left, who
fall a prey to him. "L'INFAME" I also name him,--knowing well
enough how little he, in his poor muddled, drugged and stupefied mind,
is conscious of deserving that name. More signal enemy to God, and
friend of the Other Party, walks not the Earth in our day.
Anarchy in the shape of religious slavery was what Voltaire and
Friedrich saw all round them. Anarchy in the shape of